Generative User Research | Concept Design | Journey Mapping

Role: research lead, interviews, ethnography, data analysis, concept design, synthesis, workshop facilitation

This project was a generative research initiative to define a new digital product for Knotel’s customers, which stemmed from senior stakeholders noting the pain points of Knotel’s move-in process. As a flexible office operator, Knotel provides short-term leases for corporate real estate. The goal of this initiative was to identify pain points in the move journey - both for the move manager from the client and the client’s employees - and ideate around potential solutions and concepts to address those areas for improvement. The research project took place over the course of ~2 months and involved myself leading the research, a product designer to help with concept ideation, and a software engineer. Our work reported to the VP of Product, Head of Customer Success, Head of Implementation, and the Heads of Workplace Strategy & Design across all of Knotels’ markets (NYC, West Coast, and Europe).

Project Context

Knotel Business Challenge

Knotel’s opportunity is to identify the pain points surrounding “change” for Knotel customers and solve for these in a way that makes the Knotel preparation and move process as seamless and exciting for buyers and their employers.

Human (Customer) Challenge

The value to the customer will be the resolution of main move points specifically for end users and a platform to facilitate change management, an area often overlooked when real estate teams are stretched thin.

Existing Customer Journey

Leveraging Knotel’s existing customer journey - encompassing the space lifecycle and the customer experience - this project focused specifically on the ‘Moving’ and ‘Living’ phases involving ‘Design + Fit-Out’ and ‘Move-In.’

Project Focus

In order to embark on this research initiative, our team had to define what we meant by ‘change management.’ Conducting secondary research on change management, it was defined as the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip, and support individuals to successfully adopt to change in order to drive organizational success and outcomes.

Of all the types of organizational change, our work specifically focused on workplace moves and adapting to new styles of working within a new physical environment. Focusing on this aspect of change management, the scope was intended to touch the end users of these physical workplaces - the employee’s of our client companies - and the interaction between them and the move manager. The move managers have a number of other tasks in addition to liaising with the employees, but this initiative specifically focused on helping the organization as a whole adapt to change and not the manager’s tactical items.

Research & Process

We employed a mixed methods approach to this challenge blending qualitative and quantitative research and bringing in initial concept ideation early on to validate with users.

Existing content used for change management was also collected to inform the research process, targets, and questions. Additionally, we conducted secondary and analogous research.

Secondary Research & Analogous Inspiration

What We Did

• Content Audit - Audited existing change management materials that existed such as welcome packets and move planning spreadsheets

• Secondary Research - Read white papers and articles about workplace moves and change management

• Analogous Inspiration - Explored experiences related to the move process in the real estate and moving industries

Key Takeaway(s)

• Knotel teams have made one-off efforts at managing change

• Consultancies often offer change management as a service, but no one has productized it yet

Qualitative Research

What We Did

• Internal Interviews - Interviewed internal stakeholders/employees to understand their perception of the move and customer pain points

• External Interviews - Interviewed 8 customers about their move experiences to better understand their journey

• Immersions - Shadowed the implementation and customer success teams during two moves

Key Takeaway(s)

• Success of a move is usually dependent on the level of experience of the move manager. However, for most of Knotel’s customers, managing a move is often a ‘special project’ outside of the scope of someone’s primary job.

Quantitative Research

What We Did

• Analzyed Zendesk Tickets - Knotel uses Zendesk to track customer tickets about issues in the spaces. To add quantitative business metrics, we tracked common issues that were reported by customers upon move-in or shortly after.

Key Takeaway(s)

• A majority of tickets around move-in relate to ‘baseline’ needs such as WiFi, HVAC, technology issues, keys and access, and outstanding punch list items

• Tickets don’t start to taper until 4 weeks after move-in (far too long to feel acclimated)

Initial Concepts & Ideation

What We Did

We developed mock-ups of a potential change management product to stress test with customers if it could help them streamline their workflow. The initial digital concept consisted of a 2-way portal that would allow move managers to communicate with employees about the move, share necessary documents, and provide a streamlined check-list.

Key Takeaway(s)

• Consider streamlining to be solely on the employee view with the page editable for move managers

• Alerts for employees might not be necessary as they are not the most frequent

• Countdown should move higher and be made more prominent

Synthesis

Key Findings

• Three Key Communication Channels Exist- between executives & move managers, move managers & employees, and move managers & Knotel

• Customer Expectations are unclear - Expectations about what our product and timeline is are very unclear

• Change Management is currently an after thought - Customers acknowledged they needed it, but never had time and it wasn’t top of mind

• ‘Knotel’ is synonymous with unfinished - In customers’ minds, Knotel means something isn’t finished as Day 2 items take forever to resolve

• Two types of information are key - Move managers need to share storytelling information to excite employees as well as operational and tactical information

• Knotel is not perceived as a one-stop shop - Often customers have as many as 9 points of contact within Knotel

Stakeholder Co-Creation Workshop

To share back research and findings, I facilitated a session with the 9 main stakeholders to align on interventions. We leveraged ‘storyselling’ to gain buy-in to the insights and understanding of our work.

• Agenda:

  • Overview/Intro

  • Walk the Walls Exercise to Introduce Research

  • User Journey Mapping Exercise

  • ‘Customer Experience’ Madlibs

  • Digital Concept Feedback

Mapping the Move Journey

We mapped both the employee and move manager journeys, noting the activities, feelings, and main jobs to be done (functional, social, and emotional).

Move Manager Pain Points:

• Handling tactical issues such as seating charts & liaising with executives

• Staying on top of communications

Employee Pain Points:

• Questioning executive motives

• Packing up current workspace

• Getting acclimated to new workspace

Main High Point: Seeing designs for the new space

Defining the Target Users

After conducting the interviews and mapping the respective journeys related to the move process, our team clarified the segment of customers that this product would intend to target. Leveraging existing research to define enterprise profiles, two of Knotel’s four customer archetypes stood out as requiring the most support from this product. The two archetypes that were the target customers had relatively small Real Estate and HR teams, which meant they required more support for workplace moves as managing the move was likely an additional task on an already lengthy to-do list. At these organizations, employees are open to change, but not fully ready to embrace it without additional support.

Jobs to Be Done

Based on the research, our team identified key jobs to be done for each user in order to inform the features of a digital product. The jobs to be done that our solutions would focus on were those at the intersection of employees moving into Knotel spaces and the move manager.

Enhancing the Experience

Experience Toolkit

Addressing a major pain point of the customer journey such as the move process required our team to consider a multi-faceted approach. While our focus was on designing and developing a technology solution, we collaborated with those driving other interventions focused on process, people, and place, to deliver the best experience for the client.

Process Solution

Our team developed a CX playbook and charter and then held workshops with the different markets to introduce them to the work and help them develop their own charters.

Customer Experience Playbook:

• Sent to all markets outlining our research & describing ideal experience

• Outlined company experience principles

• Suggested recommendations for how to implement the principles

Customer Experience Charter:

• Developed a template for markets to adapt their own experience principles

Digital Concept - Change Management Portal

To address the pain points in the move process, our team designed a concept for a change management portal that would have a streamlined view editable only for the move managers. The design was intended to build excitement by showcasing photos of the new space prominently and a countdown until move-in. Amenities in the space were highlighted and the move manager would have space to upload documents such as welcome guides, share contact information for the move team, and update FAQs.